It was only one game, against a team hobbled by injuries, in early October when games tend to get lost in hindsight — but the Ducks did kill all four of their penalties on Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild.

What’s more, they did it without overstraining their usual PK suspects;Todd Marchant (4:21) chipped in the most of any Ducks forward but got help from Ryan Getzlaf (3:12), Saku Koivu (3:39), Joffrey Lupul (2:40) –even Bobby Ryan for a good 69 seconds.

“I think we’re just experiencing different looks,” Ryan said. “(The penalty kill) hasn’t gone as well on the road trip and in a few other games, we’ve given up too many chances. I think it’s just trying new personnel, trying to find if guys are capable.”

They were all capable on Wednesday, which hopefully serves as a building block for a team that had allowed a league-worst eight power play goals in its first five games.

“I did notice we had a couple short-handed chances — that’s probably first and foremost, that we created more,” head coach Randy Carlyle said. “You don’t go into killing a penalty with those expectations. I think our structure was better. We were better at opportunities to clear the puck, and I think the biggest thing was our faceoffs” — 5-of-7 on the PK and 28-of-51 overall.

The Blues learned Friday they’ll be without forward Alex Steen, who has a fractured wrist, for six-to-eight weeks. Steen is one of the Blues’ top penalty-killing forwards.

The Ducks have placed forward Andrew Ebbett on waivers. The 26-year-old center had no points in two games this season, and was a healthy scratch in the other four.

“Right now, with (Brendan) Mikkelson playing well, it’s just a roster issue,” Ducks senior vice president of business operations David McNab said. “Mikkelson played really well in training camp. He could have easily stayed in camp. Brendan deserves to be here.”

Ebbett was part of a logjam at the center position for the Ducks; Ryan Getzlaf, Saku Koivu, Todd Marchant, Erik Christensen, Ryan Carter and Petteri Nokelainen were all ahead of him on the depth chart (Christensen, Carter and Marchant were also ahead of him at left wing).

Ebbett’s fate will be learned Saturday morning. Teams are given waiver priority based on their record last season — the team with the worst record gets the highest priority — until November 1 (at which point the system reverts to this year’s record). If no team claims him, the Ducks can assign Ebbett to the minor leagues.

McNab said that even though the Ducks have no AHL affiliate, Ebbett doesn’t figure to be sent to ECHL affiliate Bakersfield by virtue of his experience.

“We can stick him a whole bunch of places,” McNab said.

1. Good news for James Wisniewski. The defenseman skated with his teammates for the first time Friday since going on injured reserve with a sprained shoulder suffered in Philadelphia. Head coach Randy Carlyle said Wisniewski’s time on IR “doesn’t appear lengthy,” but he won’t have Wisniewski available tomorrow against St. Louis.

2. Erik Christensen also found himself in a good place Friday, skating at left wing with second-liners Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne. Carlyle creatively complimented Christensen after Wednesday’s game — the forward’s second of the regular season — saying, “if they play one game, and you haven’t really noticed them on the negative side, then they’ve had a positive impact.”

3. Joffrey Lupul practiced on a line with Todd Marchant at center and at Evgeni Artyukhin at right wing.

Corey Perry scored two goals, Jonas Hiller won his third straight start and the Ducks made it look easy — before a 6-on-5 goal made it look close.

Goaltender Jean-Phillippe Levasseur, pinched out of the Ducks’ ECHL affiliate in Bakersfield, has signed with the Laredo Bucks of the Central Hockey League.

The CHL is considered a “Single A” hockey league to the “Double-A” ECHL. Why is Levasseur there? With each ECHL team allowed only two roster spots for goalies, Timo Pielmeier and Justin Pogge were given the nod ahead of Levasseur, the Ducks’ seventh-round choice in the 2005 entry draft.

It’s a tough drop for Levasseur, who spent all of last season in the American Hockey League,going went 13-18-4 with a 3.11 goals-against average and an .890 save percentage.

Levasseur has played in 51 career AHL games, posting a combined record of 17-22-5 with the Portland Pirates (’07-08) and Iowa Chops (’08-09).

Asked Tuesday about his many line combinations during the Ducks’ recent road trip, Randy Carlyle didn’t think there were all that many. So while seeing Evgeni Artyukhin on the occasional line with Ryan Getzlaf might seem odd at first … “get used to it,” was the exact message.

The Ducks’ recently concluded four-game road swing was
neither a panacea, nor was it the road trip from h-e-double hockey stick. It was something in the middle, just as its 2-1-1
record suggests.

But, as Ryan Whitney said, “it should have been a 3-1 trip.”
When the 82-game regular season is over, the Ducks might look back at last
Thursday’s 4-3 loss in Minnesota — after having led the game 3-0 — as a
critical lost point.

Continue reading “Road trip productive, but Ducks have a ways to go.” »

Given James Wisniewski’s style of play, it’s no surprise that he’s back on injured reserve.

“The way he blocks shots – it’s freak too,” Ducks defenseman Ryan Whitney said. “The one the other night, he’s laying down and got hit laying down. He does play hard.”

Fortunately Wisniewski’s latest injury, a sprained shoulder aggravated Saturday in Philadelphia, isn’t that serious. Coach Randy Carlyle said Tuesday that Wisniewski will resume skating “probably toward the end of the week.”
Continue reading “Life without Wiz” »

Todd Marchant skated with his Ducks teammates in practice today and appeared fully recovered from a Dan Girardi hit late in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 35 saves, but Stephen Valiquette was the better goalie, stopping all 18 shots he faced in the New York Rangers’ 3-0 victory.